Noble Blood
by NursingStudent
Summary: It is never easy to become a physician, but Merlin was having a harder day than usual. Why did he have to learn bloodletting? Rated K-plus for, well, blood. Season 2.


_Please note: I do not own BBC Merlin and I am not a doctor. This story ignores antigens, antibodies, and agglutination and uses creative license. 您的贵姓吗？ Literally means "What is your honorable surname?"  
_

Merlin woke up one starkly bright morning, and all he could wonder was why he ever let his mother talk him into being a physician's apprentice. It wasn't that he didn't like Gaius; Gaius was wise and his fatherly presence was something Merlin had missed while he was growing up. It wasn't that he didn't feel honored to be by a patient's side at the most trying time in his or her life; it was a privilege. It wasn't that he refused to do hard work; Prince Arthur tested the limits of his work ethic nearly every day. It was what he had to do this morning.

He had to learn bloodletting.

And it was awful.

Merlin put on his oversized handkerchief and brown jacket. He noticed every movement of each of his fingers as if they'd moved in slow motion. He took ten deep breaths then thudded down the stairs with each footfall echoing of doom.

Gaius didn't seem to notice Merlin's panicky state, and he asked. "Good morning, Merlin, why don't you sit down?"

Merlin ran like a goblin was after him.

"I just can't get that boy to eat breakfast." Gaius muttered, "Well, if he's not going to eat…" He pulled Merlin's bowl over by his own.

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Merlin had stumbled almost to Prince Arthur's rooms when two knights stopped him.

"Stand aside, boy, we'll take care of 'im." Said a knight as they advanced onwards toward whichever madman was pursuing Merlin down a corridor this time.

"NO! Uh, I mean, I'm fine." Merlin sputtered. The knights turned back.

"You don't _look_ fine." Sir Leon said, looking at Merlin's mangled expression.

"I'm fine, fine, fine…oh look how the sun doth shine!"

"What?"

"Really, _Mer_ lin, poetry doesn't suit you." The Prince grumbled from his room, nearly as loud as his stomach. "Where _is_ my breakfast today? Whither goest the tray?"

"It's fine, it's alright, yes, ah…" Merlin was muttering to himself.

"Maybe I should send you back to Gaius today."

"Oh, no, that's not necessary!" Merlin said, shocked back to his senses.

Soon Merlin was doing EVERYTHING he could think of to help Prince Arthur. He swept the floors, washed the windows, scrubbed the socks, and tried to ignore the fact that Arthur's cherry syrup was reminding him of blood. But all good procrastinations come to an end and Merlin soon found himself face to face with a certain cluttered room that smelled of herbs, vinegar, and smelling salts.

He paced to the bench and sat down. The running incident earlier seemed pointless, but probably no one would think much about his odd behavior. He did run down corridors a great deal. But poetry? It had been _awful_. Maybe they would just think he'd lost his head.

Anyway, he wasn't running now, he was going to stay here, be a man, and learn whatever Gaius was going to teach him. Maybe bloodletting wouldn't be as bad as he'd imagined.

But it was.

"Why don't you go first?" Gaius calmly asked Merlin, resting out his arm on the table.

Merlin looked at Gaius; it was as if Merlin was noticing each of Gaius' wrinkles lining his face, his white hair, the frailty of his skin for the first time. "I – I can't do it."

"Merlin, I know you don't feel there is any use for bloodletting, but if you are going to be a _physician_ , it is one of the things you will have to learn."

Gaius wound up going first. Merlin winced as Gaius showed him how to find a good vein and felt the cold metal opening the vein to collect the blood.

"Remind me why we do this again?"

"Some physicians have thought that the body can have too much blood and that excess must be let out."

"What do you think?"

"I have not yet found a reason to use it here, although I have read some accounts where other physicians believe it was of use; that is why you are required to learn it."

Merlin was eventually able to practice with Gaius. He went to bed very glad the day was over.

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Sometime later, King Uther decided it was time for another tournament.

"He's hosting it again," Merlin complained to Gaius over the work table. "Doesn't the King realize that all that does is make all the people who want to kill Prince Arthur show up in town and make my life infinitely more difficult as they threaten to change destiny?"

"Well, you have done a good job protecting Camelot so far, so the King must feel it is safe."

Merlin gave Gaius a weary grin.

"But I," said Gaius, "am off to Oxford for my continuing medical education credits."

"Do you have to do that _now_?" Asked Merlin.

"I am afraid so, otherwise I won't be able to order foreign medicines or train you. I am sorry Merlin, but this weekend you will be on your own."

The weekend came all too soon. After a tussle in the ring, Prince Arthur had a nasty gash behind his knee, and they brought him to lie on a cot in Gaius' rooms. By the time Merlin and Guinevere had sewn him up, he had lost too much blood. Merlin could tell from his pulse rate and pallor that his heart could not keep up with this lack of blood for very long.

Merlin and Gwen spoke in whispers.

"He needs more blood." Gwen said.

"I know, he can't make blood that fast." Merlin said as he racked his brain for any spells that might be able to help, but nothing came to mind.

"What are you going to do?"

"Well," said Merlin cautiously, "We could give him some of mine."

"But he's got _royal blood_."

"Well the only other person in the castle who's royal is the King, and I don't think he'd approve."

"Yes, he'd probably think it was magic."

"But we've got to do it, his heart won't hold out with that little blood. And we've given him all the fluids we can. He's not even conscious anymore."

Gwen agreed that they had to do it, and she kept at the door of Gaius' rooms while Merlin gathered a hollow plant stem and made a cut in his own vein, "It's just a vein," he tried to convince himself. He waited until the blood reached the end of the stem, and then put the end into Prince Arthur's vein using a knife. After what felt like forever to Merlin and Gwen, who had her hand to her mouth, Arthur's pulse returned to normal even though he was still unconscious.

"I think he's going to be fine." Merlin told Gwen, stopping the transfusion.

Gwen walked away from the door and put a moistened cloth on Prince Arthur's forehead.

Just then King Uther called to them from outside Gaius' rooms to let him in to see his son.

"Yes, Sire!" Merlin replied, jumping up. Suddenly Merlin felt that his brain felt like ice and everything became blurry. He fell headfirst into a book on the table just as the king entered the room.

But Uther took no notice of this, rushing over his son. "How is he?" He asked Gwen, eyes still on his son.

"We think he will be fine, with rest, Sire."

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In two days' time, Gaius returned, bringing many new herbs, a new mortar and pestle, and twenty bags of various powdered fungi.

He approved of Merlin's choice of tonic for the prince and of the stitches. It was Gwen, however, who first brought up the blood transfusion.

"Merlin, that was an extremely risky thing to do." Gaius said.

"But what choice did we have?" Merlin asked.

"None. In fact, we won't even be able to write it up as a case study in the _Albion Alternative Therapy Research Journal._ The King must never find out, even if he didn't think it was sorcery, he would likely be upset that commoner blood was given to his son."

They nodded. Gwen bit her lip.

"Gaius," Gwen said. "Since Merlin gave blood to Prince Arthur, and Arthur survived, does that mean Merlin actually is a noble?"

"No, Merlin has no royal ancestry. He has a noble heart. Perhaps alchemy will one day find the link between these, but for now we must be thankful the Prince survived and keep the blood transfusion confidential as we do all patient records."

After swearing themselves to secrecy for infinity, Merlin and Gwen returned to their normal servant duties. But that did not keep Merlin from occasionally grinning as he remembered the one time he was glad of Gaius' lesson in bloodletting. Noble blood indeed.

The End.

* Please note: the scenario depicted here is for entertainment purposes only and contains no medical advice.


End file.
